Omaha daily bee., 1887-01-02
THE RAILROADS. T.
Omaha "a n Ra,Iroad Cente,

|
! OF its being the metropolis of the
nearest grain country to the mineral
wealth of the Rocky mountains ana tho
| territories, suggest at once its Importance
rs railroad center. This attracted the at
| tcntion of the railroad corporations years
| ago and being composed of the shrewd-
| est business men of the day they have
lost no time in embracing the golden OPP
| portunity. The opening of the Union
| Pacific, the pioneer and most direct trans
| continental hnc, forced eastern trunk
! lines To meet its business here no matter
| how urgently their self interests might
| favor other points. The consequence is
| that to-day Omaha is the most important
! railway point In the west Ii is gate
OF the traffic from ocean to ocean
must pass, and its southern and
nothcrn lines on both sides of the Mis-
| souri now give it a central commercial
| position between the Gulf of Mexico and
! the dominion. All prominent territories
| OF supply in the cast, northeast and
| southeast are brought INTO close commu-
nication with Omaha by seven giant
| trunk lines, combining the best railroad
| systems in the country. They are the
Chicago " Northwestern, Chicago Rock
Island u Pacific, Chicago, Burlington IL
Quincy, Chicago, Milwaukee Il st. Paul,
Wabash, Sioux City u Pacific, and Kan.
All these make close passenger connec-
tions twice day with the Union Pacific
Tor Denver, Salt Lake, San Francisco and
Portland; with the B. ~ NJ for Colorado.
Utah and Farther west; with the Chicago.
81. Paul, Minneapolis n Omaha, for ali
Northern Northern psctE sections and with tho
bic southern point. These four roads
enter Omaha proper together with
the Omaha II Republican Valley road
which furnishes direct line to Kansas.
and the Chicago, Burlington Il Quincy,
which by means of its bridge ut Platts.
mouth carries freight, 1--we stock,
m and passengers between Chicago and
Omaha without change of cars.
The number of passenger trains arriv-
ing and leaving Omaha daily is 1l5, to
say nothing of extras, specials and trains
IN sections which are of daily occur
rance.
The completion of the Omaha Belt
line, mt Il cost of 5000, 900, which con-
meets with all railroad lines that enter
the city, is a most important feature of
Omaha's railway system. In addition to
the benefits to suburban places il fur.
nishes connecting link between the
northern and southern roads and gives
all railroad systems an entrance to the
city.
Among the notable improvements
made by railroads in this city during the
year are The construction by the Union
Pacific of Il new steel and iron bridge
across the Missouri river, which will cost
Sl,CO0,00O; the completion of the Ashland
Cutoff by the B. n NJ, thus shorten
ing the. distance between the cap.
many miles; the large expenditure by
the Union Pacific in yard extension,
depot repairs, bettcrment of headquar-
ters; share in viaduct construction, etc,
amounting to about $ll6,G00. A nam.
moth union depot is promised during the
present year, company having already
been formed for that purpose. The
Union Pacific has already commenced
the construction of Il freight depot which
will cost Sl30,000. Other roads have
already determined upon entering Oma.
ha proper, of which the Chicago & North
western will in all probability be the
first, by running line from Fremont.
All this means large addition of an in
dustrious class of skilled laborcrs to
Omaha's population, practical prosperity
in its retail trade, and the strongest pos
siblc endorsement of the importance of
the manufacturing and jobbing interests
ot the city.
UNION PACIFIC.
This city is the headquarters of all the
Union Pacific system of railroads in Ne
braska. Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and
Utah. There are S3S men employed in
its Omaha shops and 300 engineers and
tiremcn draw pay in this city. The
monthly pay roll to skilled labor in
Omaha alone amounts to 5000. The
business of the road has largely in
creased during the past year, as the
following figures will show:
Frcight forwarded from Omaha. a......... .a,5,i7i
Freight received mt Omaha. .G.4 ,704
This is an increase of nearly $4,000 tons
in shipments and over 100000 tons in re-
ceipts over the record of 1885 This COM
pany runs sixty regular passenger trains
in and out of Omaha daily. Its stock
yards trains carry oyer1 900 passengers
day.
u. e VI. IN NEBRASKA.
The Burlington system of railroads has
It's most progressive division in Nebraska
which opens up the very best portion of
The state and gives an entrance to Kan
Sas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and
.rans-continental junction with the
Central Pacific at Ogden. From the
headquarters iu this city 1856 miles of
rack are operated, $40 miles of which
were completed in Nebraska last year.
The company also completed Il new five
stall round house in this city last year at
a cost of $4,000, and enlarged and i'm
proved its business quarters at an eX-
employees located in Omaha. Ii has now
m use 4,Gi7 cars and 154 locomotives.
Nine express trains depart from
Omaha on this road daily and eight ar
rive. The amount of business done by
his road IN freight last year was:
forwarded from Omaha 1f7 tons
teceiNcd M Omaha ................2y 2y2 sol tons
ave stock forwarded ...........,.... 2,4i2 cars
live stock received. :,fGi cars
MISSOURI PACIFIC.
While this road does not own mile Of
rack in Omaha or Douglas county, its
operation of the new Belt line, commenc-
ng in the latter part of October, has en-
,bled it to do very large and steadily
business. Two regular passcn-
ger trains are run between this city and
st. Louis daily each way. A regular
passenger train arrives from Lincoln,
Neb., each morning and one leaves tins
,ity for the capital each evening. Two
'eguar freight trains are run each way,
besides a large number of extras. This
makes ten trains daily departing from
md arriving in Omaha. The Missouri
'aciiic has its own rolling stock, hut by
arrangements with the Belt line has full
Use of lis tracks, passenger and freight
lepots in this county. during the month
II November 1886, there were received
,Npr thp ron1 1f Omaha ~ Cl,3 DO tons of